Memory
By Michael Jacqmein
Part 2
Looking around the dim room, Lett was able to make-out a white board at the front. He
knew this type of whiteboard was one that only worked when the power was on, but at least it was
something to write on.
Lett abruptly stood from his desk, immediately drawing the attention of everyone in
the room. No one had moved or done anything since they all woke up, and seeing Lett stand
broke the cold ice of isolation that all of them were feeling. Lett, feeling unprepared for the
amount of attention he was getting, slowly walked over to the board. Tightly gripping a pen that
had been laying on his desk, he stood now inches from the powerless white surface of the
electronic board Lett just couldn’t remember the name of.
Now he realized he didn’t really know what to write.
“Well, now that everyone is staring at me, I should probably say something important.
I’m sure they think I somehow know what I’m doing.”
He nervously pondered the different things he could ask and the ways he could ask
them, but as precious minutes of attention went by, he couldn’t think fast enough.
“I’ve got to put something down! Whatever, you know what? I’ll just ask them
straight-up.”
So, are we all in the same boat?
The pen cut into the surface of the powered-down board, permanently marking the clean
white surface. When Lett finished with the last letter with intense concentration, he put his hand
down and turned around. The people still stared, but not with as much wonder and sharpness as
before. They now looked curious and Lett felt the happy pang of being understood. He gestured
to them with some new-found fervor, casually waving his hands, telling them in the universal
code to “come over and take a look!”
The first one to stand was a girl about Lett’s age, he decided. In fact, most of the
people there were Lett’s age; there was only one man in the room that looked fully matured.
After this girl had stood and walked over to Lett, many others began making the trek as well.
Soon, there was an orderly line forming at the whiteboard, all waiting to read the one sentence
Lett could think to ask.
Lett watched from the side as each person read their “first” words, each one of them
evidently going through a small epiphany of remembering how to read again; how to write again.
This sudden remembrance got everyone excited and thinking.
When the first girl had finished reading the small message (and simultaneously
remembering how to write), she stood aside from the board, deep in thought. Lett watched her as
she pondered something he could never vocally ask her about. The lack of communication was
killing him, and he quickly built up the will to go over to her. When he navigated through the
line of kids waiting, he drew a lot of their attention, not purposefully, to the fact that he was
going over to physically communicate with the girl. The small crowd watched him at a glance,
but he knew that many eyes were on him.
When he sat atop a desk next to her, she was startled out of her concentration. She
looked at him with worried eyes, silently asking, “What are we going to do?”
He answered in the same, all-telling look, saying with his eyes, “Don’t worry. I know
something!”
A idea lit in his mind, and now, in a burst of confidence, he stood and graciously gave her his
hand. She looked up at him, curious now at his planned and calm appearance. After a pause, she
took his hand and he led her over to “his” desk.
Once they arrived, Lett showed her his note. She hastily grabbed it from his desk,
reading with a thirst for knowledge. Her eyes opened at the new information, Lett could tell she
understood as much as him. But, as her eyes flittered back and forth across the page, he saw a
look he knew he hadn’t had himself. Her mouth curled into a relieved grin, and she looked back
up at him and uttered a sound that sent a wave of memory shivering through Lett’s spine.
“Hello,” she whispered.